Cricket Bowling Tips: Fast Bowling / T20 Bowling Strategy

by Zubair Khan
(Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)

Lasith Malinga: T20 King of ‘Death’ Bowling

Hi Coach, I am a fast bowler for my school team, our fast bowling needs to improve so that that it takes wickets and improves its economy to put the pressure on the batting side.

As their lead bowler, I take a wicket or two off my 4 overs in a 20 overs match but at the the cost of 6-8 runs per over!

I want to know how to bowl in pressure situations and I also want to know how to improve my economy and take wickets too?

I live in Saudi Arabia so we play on concrete pitches here!

Zubair Khan

Hi Zubair, as the lead fast bowler I imagine you open the bowling. Your basic gameplan is going to be to hit the top of off stump when you are bowling with the new ball, you need to give yourself a chance to get the batter out bowled, LBW and caught behind … in bowling this full length you are creating this opportunity.

If he looks to hit you to midwicket bring your fine leg up and put mid wicket out to protect the leg side boundary.

To stay calm in pressure situations, at the top of your mark, set a goal for each ball, this way you keep your mind focused on what you want to achieve and not on what the batter might do. You can control your game plan, you can’t control his.

When you walk back to the top of your mark after each delivery, breathe smoothly and easily, this slows your heart rate down and allows you to control your focus. Re-set your focus after each ball by setting a goal for the next ball, this keeps you present with whats going on, if you get hit for four or six, it allows you to let go of the negative feeling and to refocus yourself.

You can use your bouncer occasionally to push the batter back, you can also use your slower ball to stop the batter from trying to hit through the line.

When bowling at the ‘death’ at the end of the game a simple but effective game plan is to aim to bowl yorkers in at middle stump, Lasith Malinga practices this over and over by putting one of his training shoes down and bowling at it. Train yourself to be able to hit it. It forces the batter to hit the ball up the field and for you to control his hitting zones which will be in front of the wicket.

The field for this can be to bring fine leg and third man up into the ring, protecting the boundaries on the off and the leg side in front of the wicket.

In T20 cricket you are going to get hit for boundaries so accept it, the better your control and accuracy the more you can control where the batter hits the ball.

I prefer to have bowlers who are aggressive and look to take wickets, this keeps setting the batting side back in building or chasing a total, so in the first 6 overs look to strike with the new ball. Later in the game, particularly at the death, you can use your yorkers and slower balls when you are looking to save runs.

Best Wishes Coach

About Richard Pybus

I'm Richard Pybus, I've coached Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middlesex, Titans and the Cape Cobras in South Africa and the goal of this site is to help you to play winning cricket.